Tuesday, April 14, 2009

I might be an unfit parent

Tonight Jill let me live the fantasy of being a single dad while Jill worked late or went to the spa or did homework. For whatever completely justified reason (not that she needed to justify it) she let me take care of the kids on my own.First I picked them up from daycare and called an old family friend of my parents that I got to know as I grew up. She didn't even know about Kyle. She was home and willing so I took both of them over to meet her. We had a wonderful conversation while Kat explored their house. (silly me, their house isn't child friendly. lots to break)We left at six when Kat let me know she was REALLY hungry. when we got home, I threw her in her high chair and fed her leftovers. She ate like a child starved. Squawker was quiet until I had made myself a sandwich. I got in one bite when he started screaming that he was hungry, too.As I took care of the kids and their needs as the evening went on I discovered that taking care of them is really about reducing the crying, yelling, and screaming to a manageable level.When I tried to get Kat ready for bed, I put Kyle in his recliner and went to change Kat into pjs. Kyle managed to lean forward and fall out of his recliner, doing a beautiful faceplant before I could catch him. As he was a little distraught, I left Kat to her amusement while I held and soothed Kyle. Then I took him upstairs to put him in his swing. When leaning over to put him in, he arched back and managed to smack his head on the back of the swing. While he screamed at me for my inept skills I picked him back up, and in doing so I bonked his head on the ceiling. Now he was cursing my very existence as well as cursing his mother for leaving him with this dolt. I held him a talked to him then put him back in the swing and turned on the noise machine to soothe him some more. Within a minute he was asleep.Sooo... I did good? Maybe not. When I turned around I discovered Kat had climbed the stairs to see all of the excitement.I find that single parenting is about keeping my blood pressure down.

You are not an unfit parent. Your bloodpressure will remain high until they leave the house. My oldest, when she was a toddler and I was pregnant with the youngest, did a front flip into the bathtub. I don't know who screamed and cried louder. Ah . . . memories.

One thing I learned with Connor (at the age Kyle is) is that there is nothing wrong with setting him on the floor while I took care of Tyler. Sometimes he would cry, but the days were long gone that I could devote 100% of my attention to one of them.

You're not an unfit parent at all, you just have unrealistic expectations of yourself! No one bled, and everyone survived - this night is what we consider a success now! You should too!

I learned quickly with Niecey, kids bounce. She is a very adventurous child who loves to climb and lives by my first grade teacher's mantra, "If an first you don't succeed try try again!" I can't tell you how many times she would climb up something, fall, I'd cuddle her and then she would calm down and then run and do it again! And she has made it to the ripe old age of 5 (AND A HALF!) and is at the top of her kindergarten class (we are just a tiny little bit proud of that). So don't worry too much when you are juggling the kiddies, they'll be fine =)

About Me

- Still going crazy. Not a new parent, Wife and I have both graduated. Working full time with various projects that involves dragging adults (kicking and screaming) to face unpleasant facts. Should be good practice for parenting.
I find it helps to laugh at the world and the situations we put ourselves in. We all take ourselves so seriously. When really, life is a comedy.